One US serviceman was killed and another was injured on Sunday after an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff from an airfield in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The military has ruled out hostile fire as the cause of the crash, which is under investigation. The helicopter was responding to a reported rocket attack against Kandahar airfield when it went down, the officials said.
Sangin has become a hotbed of militant activity, particularly for the 3,300 British soldiers in the region. Five British troops have died in recent militant attacks, including two in Sangin on Saturday and another two there on June 27. The military said that up to 30 extremists, firing guns and mortars, attacked a coalition patrol that had just found a weapons cache in Sangin on Sunday. “The coalition attacked the engaging enemy element as well as a second group attempting to reinforce the original group,” said the military statement, which estimated that 20 militants had died. Two soldiers were also wounded and airlifted to a medical facility where they are in stable conditions, the military said.